Sheff v. O'Neill: 20th Anniversary

You are cordially invited to attend

A lecture and reception to mark the 20th  anniversary
of the filing of Sheff v. O'Neill

Featuring Susan Eaton of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute

With additional remarks by John Brittain, General Counsel,
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
and Elizabeth Horton Sheff

on

Monday, April 27, 2009
5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

William R. Davis Courtroom
William F. Starr Hall
University of Connecticut School of Law
Wine & cheese reception in the Reading Room following panel discussion

Cosponsored by the Black Law Students Association
and the Latino Law Students Association
                          
RSVP by April 20              
e:claudia.hallas@law.uconn.edu
v:860.570.5244

Twenty years ago, on April 27, 1989, a group of public interest lawyers – including several current and former faculty at UConn Law School – filed a landmark educational equity case in the Hartford Superior Court on behalf of a group of parents and children; Black, White, and Latino families from Hartford and its suburbs.

Today, more than a decade after the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the separate and unequal educational system in the Hartford region violates the state constitution, the ongoing Sheff v. O’Neill  case is a leading national example of successful voluntary integration, with a network of 22 regional magnet schools and a growing suburban transfer program. This year, some 16% of Hartford minority school children are attending schools that are at or near the desegregation standard under a 2008 court-ordered agreement.  Next year, the number will climb to 24%, and will continue to rise as long as there are still Hartford children on the waitlist for racially and economically integrated schools.
 
To mark this significant 20th anniversary, the Sheff Movement coalition is hosting an event at the law school to revisit some of the key research that continues to support the importance of K-12 school diversity.  Dr. Susan Eaton, research director with the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, will give a talk on “New Research on the Benefits of K-12 School Diversity.”  We also welcome John Brittain, former counsel on the Sheff case, who was a professor at UConn Law when the case was filed.  Elizabeth Horton Sheff will toast the continuing and future success of the case in bringing quality, integrated education to students in Hartford and throughout the region. Dean Jeremy Paul will give opening remarks.